Surgical instrument



(No Model.)

.A. MQSHAYNE.

SURGICAL INSTRUMENT.

No. 467,188. Patented Jan. 19, 1892.

/Wf/Zi5jip [WE/lira @025 0414 ZZ4 a [1411/ ma nonms PETERS 00., PNOTO-UTHO WASHXNGTON, n, c.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUSTUS MCSHANE, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

SURGICALSINSTRUMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters'Patent No. 467,188, dated January 19, 1892.

Application filed September 19, 1891. Serial No. 406,198. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS MCSHANE, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Surgical Instruments; and I do hereby declare the following to bea full, clear, and exact description of the inventi0n,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to surgical instruments known as curettes, and is specially adapted for cutting certain growths called adenoid vegetations from the naso-pharynx.

Reference is had to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same parts are indicated by the same letters.

Figure 1 represents a perspective view of my improved curette and the method of using the same, parts being removed. Fig. 2 represents a perspective view of the curette. Fig. 3 represents an end view of the head of the curette, and Fig. at represents a side view of the same.

The curette A consists of three parts, the head or cutting part A, the shank A and the handle A The head A is a heart-shaped loop of fine steel with cutting-edges (4 along the interior of the top of the said loop. The exterior of said loop has a notch a in the upper end thereof, and the sides a are made so thin as to yield readily to pressure, forming combined springs and knife edges. The shank A is bent at a and is connected to or made integral with the handle A In inserting the curette into the naso-pharynx and in using the same in cutting out the adenoid vegetations the notch a in the upper end of the head A enables the operator to keep exactly in the median line and thus avoid injnringthe Eustachian cushions. The springs a allow the edge to be applied successively to the vault and the posterior wall of the pharynx, and the curve a in the shank enables the operator to keep the instrumentsufficiently clear of the palate. (Represented as P in Fig.1.)

The instrument has been found to remove safely and surely all of the adenoid vegetations, whether situated in the vault or on the posterior wall of the pharynx.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

1. A curette having a handle, a bent shank, and heart-shaped loops, with a notch on the upper part of said loop, and cutting-edge, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. A curette having a handle, a bent shank, and a heart-shaped loop, the said loop having thin elastic sides and cutting-edge, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

AUGUSTUS MCSHANE.

Witnesses:

THEO. G. SPITZFADEN, GEO. R. REID. 

